How does the world switch over to hybrid automobiles fast?

Question

How are world governments going to assess this? Do they scrap every person's current car and force them to buy a new one or will their government pay for one to provide?

If Global Warming is to be stopped/slowed down one of these options must happen.

Answer 1

They should make them less expensive. Nobody's gonna by a little hybrid car for the price of a little truck. In fact they should give out hybrid cars for free.

Answer 2

You need to educate the masses. And for me I will not own a hybrid till they do one that is diesel electric.

Answer 3

Yo, kokopelli - your moniker is excellent, but your facts are wrong on hybrids. They do NOT run based on plant-generated power. Those are plug-in electrics, which are entirely different. Hybrids are entirely self-contained, and they work simply by charging an electric motor using the gas motor, allowing you to run on electric power at some points. This energy recovery makes the car more efficient, on average reducing the amount of gas you need to consume.

Note that plug-in electrics, while they push the problem back, are still far more efficient than gas engines, because electric motors are almost perfectly efficient, while gas engines are horribly inefficient. So, pushing the power production back to a power plant (which can recover energy about twice as effectively as gas engines) means your equivalent fuel consumption (or GHG emissions) is much lower - more than twice lower, on average. And if you have a fully renewable source of power to charge, it is completely non-emitting.

Answer 4

Hybrid cars are a joke.  Anyone who thinks by building a car that runs part of the time on a battery is ignorant about where the battery power comes from.  All you are doing with a hybrid engine is switching some of the fossil fuel consumption from an internal combustion engine to an electric generating plant someplace, and the net benefit is zero, and probably actually negative.  The same thing with ethanol in gasoline, another cruel joke on consumers.  This saves nothing, because the cost is simply shifted from the gas pump to the supermarket because all products made from corn now have their supplies diverted to the inefficient production of ethanol, causing a rise in prices at the supermarket.

It's all nothing but a shell game and the consumer is the loser on all fronts, and the political lackeys for special interests are the big winners.

Answer 5

Not going to happen.

Answer 6

Sorry, kokopelli, but a hybrid car generates it's own electricity from the gasoline engine and by braking power.  Whenever you coast, slow down, or apply the brakes, the batteries are charged.  Fuel efficiency can increase greatly, especially if driven in an urban or suburban setting (lot's of stop and go traffic).  But hybrids are not for everyone - it takes a different mindset to get the best gas mileage.  The better you understand how it works, the more you get out of it.

Driven correctly, with the same loads/passengers, the hybrid WILL use less gas.  Interestingly enough, a hybrid SUV/truck replacing current models could perform better torque-wise and double gas mileage.  That's no joke...

Answer 7

Bigger salaries and cheaper cars

Answer 8

Well, looks like a whole thread going here, so i'll join-

Hybrids are a political statement. Cramming batteries into a Lexus SUV and giving it 30mpg is not that impressive, considering little efficient cars like the Honda Fit and Civic, Chevy Aveo, and Toyota Yaris.

Little cars use less raw materials and cost less to make. They easily reach mileage in the high 30s for less money than a normal car, let alone a hybrid.

I'm an environmentalist, I'm a liberal, but I'm tired of people who think that driving a hybrid SUV makes them "green."

The government has the right to enforce fuel economy standards if they're saving the planet; and soon people will realize that hybrids are not the answer.

Answer 9

Very quickly!

Answer 10

Modern hybrids have only a minimal advantage over non-hybrids in terms of CO2.

Based on that the government couldnt justify the costs of a switchover. The solution is cleaner and carbon nuetral energy supplies such as biofuels and carbon caputure power generation. Of course all this will cost more, much more.

Also the timescale for developing these technologies is much longer that the lifetime of your car. Hence nothing needs to be forced or vehicles provided.

Answer 11

It might be better if the electricity comes from nuclear or hydro power

Answer 12

Once the price of oil in the US reaches 5 to 6 dollars a gallon; you'll see a massive movement that pushes better fuel economy and within 10 years gets rid of gasoline run engines entirely. The people would have to get a 100% to 300% cost of living raise in all sectors to combat rising fuel prices once the price of gas hits 5 to 6 dollars a gallon the government will be forced into creating a massive campaign to get rid of gasoline entirely.

You'll see fuel cells that don't pollute being put into cars; solar panels being made mandatory on all new homes in addition to wind generators in windy areas.

You'll also see the governement forced into releasing our military fuel reserves to our allies and ourselves to reduce gas prices and pressure being increased by the military on politicians to increase the speed of the current programs to remove gasoline as a viable fuel source.

Most don't realize it's already being done in the military and once that's completed it will be done in the private sector as well.

Answer 13

You need two cars!

1) A totally battery electrically powered car for local - say up to 40 miles use - which you can recharge from NUCLEAR generated electricity from the mains. Shopping, school runs, visiting friends etc BUT these are expensive and have a big carbon footprint in their manufacture and disposal of worn out batteries every three or four years.

2) A diesel powered car for long trips particularly motorways.

A major source of fuel usage is poor roads. Stop start motoring, traffic jams, the need to accelerate and slow down, roundabouts, T junctions etc all burn fuel to waste.

Also stop carting goods about on trucks or planes for the h**l of it. Why import cabbages from Spain when we can grow them here - even if we are more expensive.

But a government to build roads - in my dreams!

RoyS

Answer 14

They could put a steadily increasing tax on the cost of gas.  Raise the tax one dollar the first year, another dollar the second year, two dollars the third year, 3 dollars the fourth year and keep on raising it.  It will drive people to more efficient vehicles by economic pressure.  It needs to be scaled up over time to give people a chance to switch over gradually and allow manufacturers to ramp up the production of hybrid vehicles and other efficient vehicles.

Answer 15

All governments should drop any import tarriffs on hybrids, but we are often overlooking public transportation as a solution. They just made it free to schoolkids in London, but if they reduced the incredibly high train fares, surely fewer people would drive (it is cheaper to drive here than take the train sometimes!)

Answer 16

Prices drop dramatically and production of hybrids becomes mandatory. That is the only way they would spread quick.

If you had a choice between a 10000$ hybrid and a 10000$ compact, you would go for the hybrid. All hybrids have to do are become competitive.

Answer 17

they wont have to do much the chavs near me seen to be doing a god job decommissioning cars at the min

chavs = choads

Answer 18

They need to be made drastically cheaper, I need a vehicle I can tote my whole family around in, so more size options would be great and designed so the look is more appealing to a broader market and perform as closely as possible to the cars that we are use to driving